MSI Press Blog

  An encounter with God rarely announces itself with fanfare. It may arrive in silence, in crisis, in beauty, or in the ordinary rhythm of a day. Yet when it happens—when a person truly meets the divine—the axis of life tilts. What once seemed central begins to shift, and what once felt peripheral becomes luminous. 1. The Disruption of Certainty To encounter God is to be interrupted. The tidy architecture of belief, identity, and control suddenly feels too small. You realize that the divine does not fit inside your categories—it dismantles them. This disruption is not destruction; it’s revelation. It exposes the scaffolding of self that was never meant to bear the full weight of meaning. 2. The Reorientation of Desire Transformation begins when desire itself changes. The encounter awakens a hunger not for possession or achievement, but for presence. You start to crave integrity, compassion, truthfulness, and mercy—not as moral duties, but as the natural language of love. The heart ...

  Mysticism has never been a static thing. It’s a living current that keeps reshaping itself around the spiritual, cultural, and intellectual needs of each era.  1. The Desert Fathers: Mysticism as Withdrawal and Purification The earliest Christian mystics — Antony, Macarius, Syncletica, Evagrius — understood the mystical path as fundamentally ascetic and apophatic . Their goals were: Purity of heart (katharsis) Inner stillness (hesychia) Direct encounter with God through silence, fasting, and solitude Combat with the passions and the “logismoi” (thoughts) Mysticism was not a specialty; it was the core of Christian spiritual life. It had enormous credibility because it was seen as the most serious form of discipleship. The desert was a laboratory for holiness, and the mystic was a spiritual athlete. The form was simple, embodied, and often extreme: caves, vigils, repetitive prayer, manual labor, and long stretches of silence. 2. Medieval Mysticism: From Solitude to Syste...

  The MSI Press study guide series is a set of documents/posts prepared by authors to help readers take a deeper dive into and personal look at various MSI books.  Today's study guide is meant to accompany  A Believer-in-Waiting's Firs Encounters with God  by Elizabeth Mahlou. Book Description: A Believer in Waiting’s First Encounters with God invites readers into the intimate, often mysterious world of a modern-day mystic. In this powerful spiritual memoir, the author shares true stories of divine encounters, mystical experiences, and contemplative awakenings that bridge the physical world and the spiritual realm. From moments of awe-inspiring hierophany to quiet revelations born of suffering and unknowing, this book offers a unique perspective on what it means to encounter God in everyday life. Each chapter explores deep spiritual themes—good and evil, light and darkness, surrender and transformation—all woven together by the steady thread of God’s unconditional l...

    Excerpt from  A Believer-in-Waiting  by Elizabeth Mahlou.  A Simple Grace It all began with prayer, but which prayer began it all I do not know. It may have been the grace I was coerced into saying five years ago. Or, it may have been the prayer of my sister Danielle five decades earlier. I used to think it was the former. Now, in reviewing the whole expanse of my life, I rather think it may have been the latter.   Danielle’s Prayer The “8-pack,” a moniker given to my seven younger siblings and me by my brother Rollie, suffered immense abuse during our childhood. My sister Katrina, in fact, never planned on growing up, certain that she would be killed by Ma before achieving adulthood. However amazing, we all did survive the extensive physical abuse (e.g., being stabbed, thrown into walls, kicked into unconsciousness, pulled down flights of stairs by the hair, and much more), emotional abuse (e.g., being negatively compared with each other, denigrated at...